[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 39 (Monday, October 1, 2007)]
[Page 1258]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following a Meeting With Secretary of Transportation Mary E. 
Peters and Federal Aviation Administration Acting Administrator Robert 
A. Sturgell

September 27, 2007

    The President. Today I'm joined by Secretary of Transportation Mary 
Peters and the Acting Administrator of the FAA, Bobby Sturgell. I want 
to thank you all for coming.
    We've been having a discussion about the fact that a lot of our air 
travelers are not only inconvenienced, they're--in some cases, they're 
just not being treated fairly. And there's a lot of anger amongst our 
citizens about the fact that, you know, they're just not being treated 
right.
    And the Secretary and I have been talking about what to do about it, 
and I've instructed her to report back to me as quickly as possible on 
two matters: One, to make sure that consumers are treated fairly and 
complaints are listened to, and that we address some of the egregious 
behavior that our consumers have been subjected to. Endless hours 
sitting in an airplane on a runway, and there's no communication between 
the pilot and the airport, it's just not right. And so Mary is going to 
work very hard to make sure the system is much more responsive.
    The other issue, of course, is dealing with congestion. And one of 
the reasons why our consumers on airlines, airline passengers are being 
so inconvenienced is because the skies are too crowded. And there's some 
short-term things we're going to do, and Mary is going to report back to 
me about what those will be.
    Also, Congress needs to look at this FAA reauthorization--I call it 
modernization--and work with this Department and work with Bobby 
bringing our FAA into the 21st century, so that our consumers and 
passengers and citizens won't be inconvenienced the way they are.
    Now, we've got a problem; we understand there's a problem; and we're 
going to address the problem. Madam Secretary, I appreciate your 
willingness to do so.
    Secretary Peters. Thank you, Mr. President.
    The President. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 2:20 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House.